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The Vanishing Witness

Book 1 in The Silas Vance Mysteries

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by P M Charles

A silent ship. A murdered financier. A witness who disappears before he can speak. When the abandoned schooner Sea Serpent drifts into the Pool of London, former naval surgeon Silas Vance discovers a dead man in a flooded cabin. The evidence suggests drowning. Vance knows better. The victim’s boots are dry. His brandy has been poisoned. A strange lead token is hidden in his coat, and a page has been torn from the ship’s log. Then the only surviving witness vanishes. As Vance searches the Thames waterfront, hidden tunnels and shipping offices of Victorian London, the trail leads towards an influential businessman whose empire depends upon fear, fraud and silence. When Vance’s brother is accused of the murder, finding the witness becomes a race against the gallows. To expose the truth, Vance must follow the raven, decipher the ledger and enter a criminal world that has flourished beneath London’s respectability. The Vanishing Witness is Book One in the Silas Vance Mysteries, an atmospheric series combining maritime intrigue, forensic medicine and traditional detection.

Publication date: August 12, 2026